Playing with your fingernails vs. a pick

I stopped using a pick years ago, cos I kept dropping it I noticed Mark Knopfler doing a sort of hybrid grabbing/picking technique and thought I'd give it a try. Just stuck after that and now I very rarely pick up a pick. Learned how to do pinched harmonics with a weird little inversion of my index fingernail.

Back in college I studied classical guitar so I always had the precisely filed nails. But that was 25 years ago. Nowadays I just keep them trimmed, or use the finger picks for lap steel, resonator or banjo. I also use regular old flat picks. I guess it depends on the style/feel or mood you're trying to create.

I prefer the flat pick.
 
I've tried the finger picks and never really liked them. My nails are fairly thin and that wouldn't work.
 
A buddy of mine, also with thin nails, even tried eating gelatin to try to grow thicker nails..... I don't recall how that turned out...
 
Quite a few rockers don't use picks.... so ...whatever works best.

I've played classical guitar for well over 30 some plus years now.....
 
I use this style on my electric as well as my steel strings instruments.
 
I have tried every single concoction I ever ran across......well at least almost all of them......
 
The only thing that works is to just take care of them ....eat a well balanced diet...take a daily vitamin supplement and that is about all you really can do....cause the nails grow from the inside out and from what you eat and how you take care of yourself..... 
 
you do not need Long ones...or flied to special shapes or eating gelitn etc........(actually the very best shape to file your nails to is "follow the curvatur of your finger tip") keep em short which supports them...the longer they are the more dangerous they are to you and anyone you stab!  kidding!!! 
 
But really when you have short well rounded nails that are filed to the shape of your finger tips they are a bit stronger... the longer the weaker and more fragile.....also do not forget..when you file ....file at a 45 degree angle and then rub the filed edges down with 1200 or 1400 wet dry sand paper...this will buff the edge and give you that glossy tone.....
 
When yo play it is a combination of nail and finger tip flesh not nail alone....so if you are right handed make sure you file really well up and into the left hand corner of the finger tip....round and smooth is the way to go and think....
 
If you are going to play on steel strings then you need to see a nail expert to apply a gel coat over your nails.....this will thicken them up and make them stronger and resist wear......steel strings almost eat up nail surface.....nylon strings are more gentle to them....
 
Yes a top coat finish does help but I never cared for it becasue it does stop the flow of oxygen to the nails. When you go to strip it off with nail polish remover you do weaken the nail....so I tend to stay away from it.....
 
But these would be my recommendations....
Keep em short
keep em well groomed
follow the shape of your finger tip
file at a 45 degree angle
buff the edges with 1200 to 1400 Wet Dry sand paper
Should do it!
 
 
Scary how much I know about this nonsense!!!!!!
Clifford
 

No rules indeed. I love playing with my nails and the pads of my fingers. Like Clifford, I've found short and shaped to my figertip very comfortable and effective. Several months ago, I shut my thumb in the door of my work van. Even as the colorful expletives were flying, and it was turning a lovely shade of off black, I was thinking of how this was going to affect my playing. Of course the nail fell off, but I'm about 6-8 weeks from a decent edge again. I can't wait.
Anyhow, on the acoustic, nails and pads almost always.
On the electrics, anything goes. It just depends on the mood and the song.
With slide (electric) I prefer a flat pick, but do a lot of palm muting.
I've tried to get used to finger picks with the lap steel, but they make me feel like a cat walking on fly paper. Someday I'll get it.
Whatever works, it's all good.

sharke
Nothing worse than being out of action because of a broken nail. Mine were always pretty strong but the one thing that screwed them was swimming. I went through a phase of swimming a couple of miles a day and during that period my nails were always tearing or coming apart. I don't know whether it was just the water or a combination of the water and the chlorine, but I ended up giving up swimming because of it (guitar is more important )

Nothing better than swimming.......so I can understand this......but you are correct....it is the chemicals in the water that soften the nails....and keeping them in the water does not help much either.....
 
nails are a funny thing....I have my roughest time keeping them when the weather changes from fall to winter and spring to summer....for what ever reason the weather drives my nails nuts....but I live with it.....found a few solutions that help....does not cure it and I only do them if I have to but other wise.....I am so used to it all and I just try to take it all in stride.....
 
Clifford

I play acoustic mostly 3 ways, with a flat pick, with the back of my nails or with the pads of my fingers.  All three give you distinctly different sounds.  The back of the nails tends to have a mellower tone that a flat pick does and on some songs, it just sounds better to me.  When I play with the pads of my fingers, sometimes I like to pull just slightly from underneath the string and give it a little snap, which adds to the tone.
 
When I use picks, I am very deliberate about the choice of pick, because they also produce different tones.  I use a real soft nylon thinner pick for light strumming.  I use a thicker harder pick when I want a palm muted rock tone.  I use thicker picks for single note soloing.  This is all for recording purposes of course, to get specific tones.  Live, I just use my favorite pick for everything.
 
On electric guitar, its picks and pads of fingers.  On bass, it can be fingers, thumb, or pick.  In all circumstances, the tone that fits the song is what I am after.

MakeShift
When I play with the pads of my fingers, sometimes I like to pull just slightly from underneath the string and give it a little snap, which adds to the tone.
 

 
Bert Jansch was the master of this. 

sharke
 
Bert Jansch was the master of this. 

Nice to see Bert mentioned, he and Renbourne had a major influence on me back around '66 to '71.
 
I think I use almost all of the above techniques. The past 7 years or so I was doing hybrid with a flat-pick and fingers, very good for jazz stuff. The last few months I've gotten back to all fingers again and using the pads in almost all cases except where I'm trying to pull the string up a bit as mentioned above.
 
I love playing guitars...and truth be told guitars themselves. 
 
Regards,

 I use both but more often than not the pick ends up in my mouth. If they had bacon flavored picks...that would be the cats meow.
 
 Hey band19..sorry not sure what your name is. Nice collection you have there.You have lots of things with strings.

sharke: That's pretty cool about the tab. Don't listen to Bert solo much anymore but the "Bert and John" album does get some rotation.
 
TheBand19: sweet quiver! Mine got reduced awhile back but I see I'm up to six again. Each one different.
 
Regards,

There's one acoustic technique I've never been able to master for some reason and that's the rhythmic slap of such players as John Martyn and Nic Jones. 
 
For example John Martyn's "May You Never"
 

 
Or Nic Jones' "Canadee-I-O"
 

 
It's a very simple technique and I've seen so many people doing it but for some reason I JUST CANNOT!